December 12, 2022

Coming off a 5-2 Edmonton Oilers win at home against the Minnesota Wild the challenge for the Oilers on Monday night was to run it back.

Call Outs:

The Oilers penalty kill still gets caught puck watching and on the first Wild goal both Darnell Nurse and Mattias Janmark were victims of it. Allowing a Matt Boldy redirect off of a Kirill Kaprizov shot pass. The Wild’s second goal Broberg tries to hold the zone but fails to do so which sends Matt Boldy and Frederick Gaudreau on a 2 on 2 for the Wild. Leon Draisaitl is in the neighborhood but doesn’t get back in to the play completely. Bouchard concedes the blue line but was in good position to challenge Matt Boldy just before he enters the offensive zone with Connor McDavid covering Gaudreau. When Boldy crosses the blue line, Boldy and Gaudreau criss cross which gains Boldy some separation from Evan Bouchard. This separation causes McDavid to start paying attention to Boldy giving Gaudreau just enough room to recieve a back door pass for the game winning goal.

Stand Outs:

Stuart Skinner stood out to me as the Oiler who wanted to win the most in the second meeting against the Wild in four days. Stuart turned aside 28 shots out of the 30 he faced. Skinner did his job and gave the Oilers a chance to win this game if they had been able to find their offense.

Shout Outs:

Zach Hyman had a strong first period and scored a powerplay goal from Ryan Smyth’s office banging in a rebound off of a Tyson Barrie point shot that Marc Andre Fleury couldn’t corral. This play was reviewed for goalie interference. The call on the ice was a good goal which relieved Hyman after a couple of other reviews didn’t go his or the Oilers way in previous games.

A tongue-in-cheek shout out to Sportsnet broadcaster Jack Michaels who announced that Jay Woodcroft said the Oilers penalty kill was starting to come around. It was only seconds later that the Wild scored a powerplay goal. It feels like every time a broadcaster brings up stats like player’s goalless droughts against the Oilers, or goalies who haven’t beaten the Oilers in two seasons, that Murphy’s law takes effect against the Oilers.

The Oilers will look to rebound against the Nashville Predators tonight and conclude the mini two game road trip in music city. Look for Jack Campbell to start in goal for Edmonton.